‘Scandal’ Recap: Olivia Pope Declares What Will Be A Short-Lived Victory

The Gladiators and Co get a major leg up on Peus.

Peus (male agent) and Ruland (female agent), the Mysterious agents, are still running things on Scandal, but on tonight’s episode, Olivia and the gang take some power back. The episode opens depicting Rowan Pope on lock down under Fitz’s supervision. He wants to go to Paris or Zanzibar, somewhere he believes the agents won’t be able to find him, but Fitz and Olivia think he’s safe where he is and refuse to let him go. Rowan thinks he’s safer on the run and tries to leave, but he’s reminded that he’s still a prisoner and he is not happy about that. He wishes they’d stop being so cocky and in fact, he yells for both of them to “LEAVE!”

Jake informs Rosen that Elizabeth is dead. Meanwhile, Ruland, Mellie’s new chief of staff, reminds Mellie that her cabinet belongs to them and that they’re choosing the staff. In the next scene, Peus, shows up to Olivia’s office and shows her photos of Jake getting rid of Liz’s body. You know what it is, if Jake doesn’t step down as VP then he’s going to leak the photos. By the way, Huck is there with Olivia. DID YOU HEAR? HUCK IS WELL AND BACK TO PROTECTING OLIVIA! YAY! Anyway, Olivia calls Peus’ bluff because if Jake gets busted then the American public wouldn’t trust Mellie either. She tells him to go ahead and do it, but he doesn’t back down, telling her that he better be VP instead of Jake, or else. Olivia continues to call his bluff, and he continues to not back down, repeating his demand one more time before leaving. Huck asks Liv what the plan is and she has no idea.

Olivia finally just tells Jake to resign because they’ll kill him if he doesn’t leave the ticket. He doesn’t want to step down because he wants to protect Mellie, but he does for Olivia. Plus, he can still protect Mellie as head of the NSA.

Ruland runs up in Fitz’s office with Mellie pretending to be innocent, but Fitz calls her out. She gets buck right back and tells him that Mellie is about to pic the new VP. Next thing you know White House police run into the Oval Office and drag them all out due to a bomb threat. They separate Ruland and Abby from Mellie and everyone else. Ruland panics because she’s not near Mellie, has no control, and can’t even get a phone signal where they are.

Police take Mellie to Fitz and Olivia, Cyrus and Rosen who are running a play to get Mellie some power back. The play is, Huck is flying a drone around the White House to spook them. Back in the meeting, Olivia makes sure to bring Rowan into the fray to help them figure out how to get the best of these agents. Rowan will only do it if Fitz says the magic words, “Will you help us?” It takes a minute, but Fitz asks and Rowan still refuses because he thinks it’s a suicide mission. They continue trying to figure out who could be VP, but Mellie knows that they’ll kill people if it’s not Peus and then she lets it slip that they started down this dark path ever since they said yes to Defiance. Fitz asks what Defiance is and they changed the subject real fast.

Luckily for them, Rowan Pope starts going off on them for being idiots, you know how he does. Fitz lunges at Rowan and actually tries to fade him for mouthing off but that gets shut down swiftly.

Their shenanigans do not get them far. Rowan is over it and goes back to his White House lock down. Cyrus pays him a visit and they get drunk and kick it about the good ol’ days when they were untouchable. And then, Cyrus tries to stab Rowan, but Rowan is smart, you know this, so he’s ready, and then they deadlock. Cyrus gets emo and says he’s upset about the fact that Rowan killed Frankie because Frankie was better than them (aka honest and legit), and Rowan apologizes for his loss. No one dies, they were drunk. Nothing to see here, kids.

The bomb squad clears the drone so now we’re back to Ruland holed up with Abby. She tells Abby that something is fishy and that she should be able to get to Fitz and demands that she does it. Abby tells her she can’t and that there are rules that even she can’t break. Ruland is pissed and then starts doing the threat shtick she doses. She threatens to kill Abby’s boyfriend. This is old, so Abby informs her that she broke up with Leo and that she no longer has friends because of them so whatevs, and for once Ruland gets shut down, for once.

Back at Action Plan headquarters, Mellie bosses up (after a pep talk from Marcus) and says she’s going to name her own VP. She initially asks Cyrus, but he says he doesn’t want it so then they come up with a game plan for someone else.

Mellie gives her speech as Ruland watches, powerless (Abby tells her that presidents are like children, and that they rarely do what they want them to, which further pisses her off). The new VP is Luna Vargas, Frankie Vargas’ widow. That’s when the agent tries to leave, but Olivia comes in and tells Ruland she is the new chief of staff and that she is now her prisoner. It seems like a sweet victory, and feels good for a second, but ish is going to get real again next week when Peus steps in to turn the tide back in is favor. They have bombs ready to blow up major American Cities at the push of a button. It’s going to get really real.